Be very careful of using any kind of spray if you have fly predators. It'll kill them, too!

This is my second year using predators, and I'm very pleased with the results. Of course, I have baited traps for the types of flies not affected by the predators.

Thanks for adding that SR! I re-read my post and I should have added that I use that spray when we aren't at home. I have a hanging trap in each doorway and over every other stall inside the barn for the few that are stalled at night. Fans when they are stalled are a big help too.

I didn't read the above posts, so forgive me if dupicate. But, I had fly problem, and went ahead and bought the more expensive stuff. Absorbine Ultrashield XP (X something anyway! Lol) lasts up to 2 wks, says can reapply every 7-10 days if needed. Works wonderfully. $19 for spray bottle, but it lasts much longer than same size bottle of Bronco, which didn't work for me, because you use it less. And it smells nice.

I put it in an empty fly spray bottle and fill the rest of the bottle with water. I find the bugs don't even land on them, and the horse flies and deer flies around here are the size of birds I swear...

They don't smell all that great but hey, it works! I also cut an old flannel sheet and nailed 3" wide pieces hanging down from our shelter and sprayed them with diluted citronella oil. They like to camp out in there when the bugs are really bad, and I lie to think walking through the sheets rubs some citronella off on them

I just googled all the ingredients, seems to be a pretty potent combination. Looks similar to an Australian invented product called RID. Except RID also has DEET in it, and no Permithreme One of the ingredients is an Australian fly repellant that slowly evaporates and kinda leaves a cloud around the animal. This is potent stuff, Id strongly recommend wearing gloves and not getting it on you.

We recently moved to a new place and the manure was between ankle to knee deep in most of the stalls/corrals, so between that and the lack of winter here the flies/bugs have been horrible. We dragged out all the horses corrals to get rid of the manure, made a central compost pile, got right on ordering my fly predators, and just because the flies were so bad also ordered my horses smart bugoff from smartpak. (also a sulfur block to replace regular salt block) So far into about 3 months and the flies have been cut at least in half. I say after a better winter hopefully this year Ill just be able to use fly predators like I have in the past which made any fly issues I had almost non exsistant, and stop the supplement. Also have to keep in mind how much livestock you have around you, if there are cows etc in your area and your neighbors arent using something, then predators will cut your flies down some but maybe not as well.

Cinny has ALWAYS had a very very hard time with flies. It seems like no matter what I used it worked for maybe 5 minutes and the all came back. There was a time I told the barn owner that his auto sprayer must be clogged because none of the other horses had flies but there were always at least 50 buzzing around his stall, but nope the sprayer worked fine.

This year I tried a feed supplement from SmartPak called "Smart Bug-Off" and it actually works like a charm on him and there are less flies in his stall. Mind, I still have to use fly spray to an extent, BUT his fly issue is only a 10th of what it has been all the past years. Some of my friends have been starting their horses on it too with the same results. I used to go through a bottle of fly spray every 1 or 2 days, now I only go through about 2 bottles a month so it actually does end up paying for itself in the end as a one month supply costs about the same as Pyrhanna which is the only thing that works on Cinny.

I live in Oklahoma too - up in Central Oklahoma. The horse flies got really bad a couple of years ago. So bad, that in spite of fly spray on the horses, the poor horses had bloody shoulders and necks. Put out the sulfur salt blocks, and the horse flies disappeared. We now put out sulfur blocks as soon as the weather starts warming up, and haven't had a problem with horse flies and other biting flies since. Oh...they are still around, but they aren't bothering the horses any.

Sadly, it doesn't do a thing for the other flies. The black flies that swarm all over the horses and drive them nuts. Fortunately, the Pyrhanna (spelling?) fly spray/wipe works quite well for those, but we have to spray the horses every couple of days.

If you don't want to use a commercial spray, there was someone on this forum that recommended neem oil. I've heard of it before, but haven't tried it. I wonder if it's similar to tea tree oil?

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